Publications from the Manchester Museum’s Entomology Department – 2020-21

A selection of the papers published in the last academic year 2020-21, based on or containing references to specimens from the Manchester Museum’s Entomology Department

This blog is the third one of the annual series devoted to the publications based on or referred to the Manchester Museum’s entomology collections in the last academic year. During the period from 1st August 2020 to 31th July 2021, a total of 23 papers were published by 21 researchers from 13 countries (including the UK, Russia, Ukraine, Finland, Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Iran, China, Italy, Costa Rica, Honduras and the US). Despite (inter)national lockdowns, travel cutbacks and limited access to the collection store due to the Covid-related restrictions, the Entomology department was able to continue to support research.

The majority of the authors are associated with universities or museums, for example: Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze (Italy); Museo de Zoología, Universidad de Costa Rica; Zoological Museum, University of Turku (Finland); University of Nebraska State Museum (US); Department of Invertebrate Zoology of the Tomsk State University (Russia); the Altai State University (Russia) and the Manchester Museum and School of Biological Sciences – Faculty of Biology, University of Manchester (UK). Other authors are affiliated with academic research institutes (e.g., Institute for Biological Problems of the North, the Russian Academy of Sciences) and one author is from the Hong Kong Entomological Society (China).

Taxa and topics

The main topic covered in these publications included the taxonomy: viz., taxonomic reviews of various taxa (some 40%), descriptions of new species (30%), and new faunistic records (18%). Less frequent topics were ecology, morphology, surveys, book reviews and memorabilia (Figure 1).

The majority of the papers (60%) were focused on spiders (the order Araneae). Taxonomic reviews, including descriptions of new species and new synonymy, were the main topics of 14 publications. More than 80 new species were described, particularly from Central and South Asia (Figure 2). New information on species records and distribution from India, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka was given.

Two papers for each of the following orders were published: Coleoptera (beetles), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and Phasmatodea (stick insects). The Coleoptera papers focused on descriptions of new species and new faunistic records of the feather-winged beetles, and the ecology of one Neotropical species of the tortoise beetles. A single paper of butterflies was devoted to morphology in two subspecies of the European Swallowtail butterfly; there is also a review of an ‘Illustrated History of Butterflies of the Afrotropical Indian Ocean Islands’. Two papers devoted to stick insects included a description of new species from Vietnam and new records from China. A complete list of publications is given below.

Figure 1. Topics covered by the 2020-21 publications using specimens from the Entomology Department, Manchester Museum

Geographical scope

Publications based on Manchester Museum’s specimens contributed to the knowledge of entomofaunas in 32 countries from such regions as the Middle East, Central, South and South-East Asia, Europe (including the UK) and the Neotropics (Costa Rica). The highest number of publications is devoted to Central Asia (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Number of the publications per country of origin of the studied specimens included in the 2020-21 papers related to the Manchester Museum Entomology Collection

Highlight of papers and authors

• Dmitri Logunov (Curator of the Arthropods Collection, Manchester Museum) made a major contribution as the author of 11, or nearly a half the papers published in this academic year. Most of his papers (70%) were dedicated to the taxonomy of spiders (order Araneae). Dr. Logunov diagnosed, described and illustrated 37 new species of spiders from India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, as well as from other countries in the Mediterranean and the Middle East (Figure 3). Other publications included the jubilee article on Dr A.A. Zyuzin (an arachnologist and his colleague), marking his 70^th anniversary, work and achievement (Logunov, 2021c).

Figure 3. Jumping spider male of Chalcovietnamcus naga, the new species from the Philippines described by D. Logunov (from Figures 1-10, Logunov, 2020b)

• Researchers from the School of Biological Sciences (University of Manchester) measured British and European specimens of the Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon) to determine if sexual selection was responsible for the “tail length” (elongated part of the hindwings) in this species. It seems that the length of the tail is more related to avoiding predators and does not exhibit sexual dimorphism (Koutrouditsou & Nudds, 2021; Figure 4).

Figure 4. Measurements to assess relative size of ‘tails’ in Swallowtail Butterfly (from Figure 1, Koutrouditsou & Nudds, 2021)

• Two new species of the rove-beetles of the genus Metolinus (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), based on unpublished materials from the Horace Last Collection were finally described (Figure 5). These descriptions were published along with new records of this scarce genus in Papua New Guinea (Bordoni, 2021).

Figure 5. Two new species of the genus Metolinus (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) recently published from specimens at Manchester Museum (from Figure 7 & 8, Bordoni, 2021)

• The holotype of Calyptocephala attenuata (Spaeth, 1919) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Spilophorini) from Costa Rica (Figure 6) accompanied with a description of a new host plant and further information of the natural history of this poorly known tortoise beetle from Costa Rica (Nishida & Chaboo, 2020).

Figure 6. The Holotype of Calyptocephala attenuata from Costa Rica, held in the Manchester Museum (from Figure 4, Nishida & Chaboo, 2020)

• Specimens of sticks insects (order Phasmatodea) from Manchester Museum were used in a taxonomic review of this group in Vietnam and China. In the two papers, eight new species and two new genera were described, as well as new synonyms and records from China (Ho, 2020; Ho, 2021).

A complete list of publications:

1. Bordoni A. (2021). New data on the Australasian Xantholinini (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Xantholininae) 13. Two new species of Metolinus from New Guinea of the Manchester Museum and new records. 305° contribution to the knowledge of the Staphylinidae. – Boll. Mus. reg. Sci. nat. Torino, 38(1-2): 23-29
2. Fomichev A.A. & Marusik, Y. M. (2020). Five new species of the Acantholycosa-complex (Araneae: Lycosidae) from Mongolia. – Zootaxa, 4497 (2): 271–284. doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4497.2.7 
3. Ho, W.C. (2020) New taxa of Clitumninae from Vietnam (Phasmatodea: Phasmatidae). – Zoological Systematics, 45(2): 104-117. http://doi: 10.11865/zs.202015
4. Ho, W.C. (2021) Contribution to the knowledge of Chinese Phasmatodea IX: First report of Xeroderinae (Phasmatodea: Phasmatidae) from China. – Zoological Systematics, 46(2): 187-190. http://doi: 10.11865/zs.2021205
5. Koutrouditsou L.K. & Nudds R.L. (2021). No evidence of sexual dimorphism in the tails of the swallowtail butterflies Papilio machaon gorganus and P. m. britannicus. – Ecology and Evolution, 11: 4744-4749. doi: 10.10 02/ece3.7374 
6. Logunov, D.V. (2020a). Further notes on the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1885 from India (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae). – Zootaxa, 4899(1): 201-214. http://doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.11 
7. Logunov, D.V. (2020b). New and poorly known leaf-litter dwelling jumping spiders from South-East Asia (Araneae, Salticidae: Euophryini and Tisanibini). – Arachnology, 18(6): 521-562. 
8. Logunov, D.V. (2020c). On three species of Hogna Simon, 1885 (Aranei: Lycosidae) from the Near East and Central Asia. – Arthropoda Selecta, 29(3): 349-360. 
9. Logunov, D.V. (2021a). Literature review: An Illustrated History of Butterflies of the Afrotropical Indian Ocean Islands (by James M. Lawrence & Mark C. Williams). – Antenna, online at: https://www.royensoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/Review_An%20Illustrated%20History%20of%20Butterflies%20of%20the%20Afrotropical%20Indian%20Ocean%20Islands.pdf 
10. Logunov, D.V. (2021b). Literature review: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) Classification and Natural History (2nd edition) (by Randall T. Schuh & Christiane Weirauch). – Antenna, online at: https://www.royensoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/Review_True%20Bugs%20of%20the%20World%20Classification%20and%20Natural%20History%202nd%20ed.pdf 
11. Logunov, D.V. (2021c). [Alexei Alexandrovich Zyuzin – 70 years]. – Arthropoda Selecta, 30(1): 133-141. (in Russian) 
12. Logunov, D.V. (2021d). Further notes on the jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of Afghanistan. – Arachnology, 18(8): 821-828. 
13. Logunov, D.V. (2021e). Notes on the genus Chinattus Logunov, 1999 from India, Pakistan and Nepal (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae). – Zootaxa, 5006 (1): 110-120. http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5006.1.15 
14. Logunov, D.V. (2021f). On three species of Plexippoides Prószyński, 1984 (Araneae: Salticidae) from the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia, with notes on a taxonomic validity of the genus. – Arachnology, 18(7): 766-777. http://doi:10.13156/arac.2020.18.7.766 
15. Logunov, D.V. & Fomichev A.A. (2021). A new species of Karakumosa Logunov & Ponomarev, 2020 (Araneae: Lycosidae: Lycosinae) from Tajikistan. – Arachnology, 18(7): 677-680. http://doi:10.13156/arac.2020.18.7.677 
16. Logunov, D.V. & Ponomarev, A.V. (2020). Karakumosa gen. nov., a new Central Asian genus of fossorial wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae: Lycosinae). – Revue Suisse de Zoologie, 127(2): 275-313. http://doi:10.35929/RSZ.0021
17. Marusik, Y. M. & Nadolny, A. A. (2020). On the identity of Trochosa hispanica (Araneae, Lycosidae), with notes on the synonymy of West Palaearctic “Trochosa” species. – Zootaxa, 4859(1): 56-80. http://doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4859.1.2
18. Nishida K. & Chaboo C. (2020). A new host plant family for Cassidinae sensu lato: Calyptocephala attenuata (Spaeth, 1919) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Spilophorini) on Smilax (Smilacaceae) in Costa Rica. – The Pan-Pacific Entomologist, 96(4):263–267. 
19. Tchemeris A.N. (2020). Remarkable new species of epedanid from Vietnam (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores: Epedanidae). – Zootaxa, 4858 (3): 427–437. http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4858.3.8 
20. Zamani, A., Chatzaki, M., Esyunin, S. L. & Marusik, Y. M. (2021). One new genus and nineteen new species of ground spiders (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) from Iran, with other taxonomic considerations. – European Journal of Taxonomy, 751: 68-114. http://doi:10.5852/ejt.2021.751.1381 
21. Zamani, A., Dimitrov, D., Weiss, I., Alimohammadi, S., Rafiei-Jahed, R., Esyunin, S. L., Moradmand, M., Chatzaki, M. & Marusik, Y. M. (2020). New data on the spider fauna of Iran (Arachnida: Araneae), part VII. – Arachnology, 18(6): 569-591. http://doi:10.13156/arac.2020.18.6.569 
22. Zamani, A. & Marusik, Y. M. (2020). A survey of Phrurolithidae (Arachnida: Araneae) in southern Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia. – Zootaxa, 4758(2): 311-329. http://doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4758.2.6 
23. Zamani, A. & Marusik, Y. M. (2021). Revision of the spider family Zodariidae (Arachnida, Araneae) in Iran and Turkmenistan, with seventeen new species. – ZooKeys, 1035: 145-193. http://doi:10.3897/zookeys.1035.65767

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